Patterns of Plants

Program Note

In our daily life, a variety of plants appear to remain silent. Are they trying to speak to us? I wondered if it was possible to hear what they were trying to say.

- Mamoru Fujieda

 

Delving into the ethereal realm where nature’s whispers intertwine with musical expression, our concert offers the first performances of Mamoru Fujieda’s recent arrangements from his Patterns of Plants. Initiated in 1996, Patterns of Plants reveals Fujieda’s longstanding interest in uncovering the concealed melodies within the world of flora. It explores botanical harmonies, ingeniously captured through the “Plantron”, a device created by botanist and artist Yūji Dōgane 銅金裕司.

The Plantron measures electrical fluctuations on the surface of plant leaves, converting this data into sound using Max, a visual programming language for music. Fujieda sifts through these sounds in search of pleasing musical patterns, which form the foundation for his short compositions. The pieces reflect each plant’s subtle beauty and uniqueness, all while maintaining a calming, contemplative mood. 

Fujieda’s visionary journey has led him to reimagine his music across an array of ensembles, leading to today’s eclectic gathering of traditional Japanese instruments (kotos and sho) and Western early music counterparts (baroque violin, viola da gamba, recorders, and countertenor). For this project, we bring together virtuosos from across Australia and beyond, including Miyama Tokita-McQueen (koto) from Toyko; Henry Liang (shō) from Sydney; Julia Fredersdorff (baroque violin) from Adelaide; and Laura Vaughan (viola da gamba), Brandon Lee (koto), Ryan William (recorders), and Alexander Ritter (countertenor) from Melbourne. They play together for the first time in this celebration of Fujieda’s music. 

Beyond Fujieda’s ensemble works, each instrument takes centre stage with works that span a range of styles. The recorder plays Uppon La Mi Re, a 16th-century English organ piece with a jagged even modern-sounding melody. The baroque violin and viola da gamba intertwine in an arrangement of the ballade De desconfort de martyre amoureus (‘With discomfort, with amorous torment’) by mediaeval composer and poet Guillaume de Machaut. Chidori no Kyoku (‘Song of Plovers’) by 19th-century Japanese composer Yoshizawa Kengyō emphasises the dramatic fervour of the koto. While the tranquil introspection of the ancient Gagaku tradition is highlighted by the shō in Oshiki-cho no Choshi. All reverberate with Fujieda’s works in a tapestry of connections and echoes.

 

- Andrew Byrne

 

About the Artists

Astra

Founded in 1944 as a string orchestra for women musicians, Astra has evolved into one of Australia’s forward-thinking cultural forces, embracing  a wide diversity of performance, publication and recordings.

Astra Concerts bring together musicians from a wide range of disciplines with a particular focus on new and unusual work. Recent seasons have featured collaborations with instrumental soloists such as pianist Michael Kieran Harvey and recorder player Genevieve Lacey, as well as artists from diverse musical traditions, including Iranian qanun player Vahideh Eisaei and Guinean percussionist Mohamed Camara. 

Astra has also partnered with ensembles like Slave Pianos, Speak Percussion, and and Flederman, and engaged in interdisciplinary collaborations with dance groups such as Danceworks and Russell Dumas' Dance Exchange. A continuous stream of premiered compositions from Australia and other countries are set within environments that extend beyond conventional formats, to movement, theatre, text, film and multimedia installations.

 

Andrew Byrne, director

Andrew Byrne is a composer and arts programmer whose music explores logical systems and process-based procedures. Living in New York for two decades, he immersed himself in the American experimental-minimalist scene, which has had a profound impact on his music. Ideas such as cellular automata (ANTS audio - video), tiling rhythmic canons (Book of Heptad Canons, Zoom In), Henry Cowell’s Rhythmicon and spirals (Forty-Eight, Spiral Studies), and polyrhythmic progressions (Fans, Grids, Tapping) can be found in his recent pieces. 

 

Miyama McQueen-Tokita, koto & voice

Miyama McQueen-Tokita is a koto and bass koto player and improviser. Fusing Japanese traditions with new ideas that are relevant to the present day, she performs contemporary works, improvisation and original music. She is known as a musician who is free and expressive, with a solid traditional foundation, which has led to collaborations with high-profile artists within Japan and internationally. Miyama has been invited to perform as a soloist in festivals such as the Tokyo Jazz Festival, Melbourne International Arts Festival and Mapping Melbourne. Ensembles she has collaborated with include the Vancouver Intercultural Orchestra, Thin Edge New Music Collective (Toronto), Australian Art Orchestra and Japan Philharmonic Orchestra. Miyama also puts energy into seeking composers from various backgrounds to create music for the koto in styles that have not yet been explored. This has led to the completion of her first solo album “SONOBE”, featuring new and existing works for the koto by composers from all around the world, released in 2020. 

 

Julia Fredersdorff, baroque violin

Melbourne-born violinist Julia Fredersdorff studied baroque violin with Lucinda Moon at the Victorian College of the Arts, before travelling to the Netherlands to study with Enrico Gatti at The Royal Conservatorium in The Hague. Based in Paris for close to a decade, Julia freelanced with some of the finest European ensembles, such as Les Talens Lyriques, Les Folies Françoises, Le Concert d’Astrée, Le Parlement de Musique, Ensemble Matheus, Les Paladins, Il Complesso Barocco, New Dutch Academy, Ensemble Aurora and Bach Concentus.

Now resident again in Australia, Julia is the founder and Artistic Director of the Tasmanian baroque ensemble, Van Diemen’s Band. She is a founding member of the chamber ensemble Ironwood, the twice ARIA-nominated baroque trio Latitude 37, and founder and former Artistic Director of the annual Peninsula Summer Music Festival on the Mornington Peninsula. Julia has appeared in major arts festivals around Australia and New Zealand and has toured extensively across Europe, from Reykjavík to Wroclaw, Madeira to Venice.

 

Laura Vaughan, viola da gamba

Melbourne-based viola da gamba specialist Laura Vaughan is one of Australia’s most engaging and expressive early music performers. Known for her vivid musicianship and warm stage presence, she has become a dynamic voice within the country’s early music scene.

After studies with Miriam Morris at the University of Melbourne and with Wieland Kuijken and Philippe Pierlot at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, Laura forged a vibrant performing career across Australasia. A versatile musician, she moves fluently between the viola da gamba, violone, lirone, and baryton, performing an expansive repertoire that spans centuries.

Alongside her deep commitment to historical performance practice from the 16th to mid-18th centuries, Laura is an advocate for new music written for these remarkable instruments, inspiring contemporary composers to explore their unique expressive power. Passionate about the viol’s luminous, intimate sound world, she brings its exquisite voice to audiences around the world.

 

Brandon Lee, koto

Brandon Lee is a Japanese koto (zither) performer based in Melbourne, Australia. Originally from Malaysia, he started the koto while attending university in Melbourne. He eventually moved to Japan and was a live-in apprentice for koto virtuoso Kazue Sawai in Tokyo. In 2011, he officially obtained his teaching and performance license from the Sawai Koto School. In 2014, he graduated with a Masters of Music from Monash University. 

Since moving back to Melbourne, Brandon has actively performed all around Australia, including Melbourne, Sydney, and Broome. He has performed at events and festivals such as, NGV’s Cool Japan, Broome’s Shinju Matsuri, and more. He has also performed internationally in Japan and America. 

Brandon performs both classical and contemporary for the koto but he is also interested in cross cultural collaboration in music and has worked with musicians like Anne Norman, Peter Knight, Andrea Keeble, and Sandy Evans.

 

Ryan Williams, recorders

Ryan Williams (b.1988) is a recorder & ocarina player, improviser, composer, interdisciplinary performance maker, researcher, educator, and arts producer. His creative practice focuses on improvising and composing music, and creating exploratory transdisciplinary projects with artists and communities. Ryan performs and creates within improvisatory & exploratory music, site-specific/installation contexts, traditional music from Eastern Europe, Japan, Ireland and the U.S, western art music & jazz, and popular folk music. His focus on exploratory & transdisciplinary performance has led to distinct creative projects in which artists develop a shared performance practice. 

 

Henry Liang, sho

Han Yi Liang (梁瀚艺) is a performer and composer based in Sydney, known for his specialisation on the Japanese shō (笙) – a free-reed wind instrument consisting of seventeen bamboo pipes, integral to the Imperial Court music of Japan known as Gagaku. 

Developed in Japan from the 7th-century, Gagaku is one of the oldest forms of orchestral music and is recognised as an Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO.

Henry’s practice spans ancient traditions to contemporary and experimental music, utilising the shō to weave together disparate musical genres and promoting intercultural awareness and understanding. In 2015, Henry was selected by Columbia University (New York) for a seven-week residency in Japan, where he was immersed in traditional Japanese music under the guidance of world-renowned shō masters including Mayumi Miyata-sensei. Since then, he has cultivated strong relationships with gagaku instrumental masters and makers, composers, and performers across Japan, and remains committed to deepening these intercultural friendships for years to come.

 

Alexander Ritter, countertenor

Countertenor Alex Ritter is an in-demand chamber singer, chorister, and choral soloist. His love of ensemble singing began as a member of the Australian Boys Choir, and then only grew following his time in The Vocal Consort and the National Youth Choir of Australia. He now maintains a busy performing schedule as a member of some of Melbourne’s premier vocal ensembles, The Consort of Melbourne, Alta Collective, Fiore, and Polyphonic Voices, and is a choral scholar at St John’s Anglican Church Camberwell. As a soloist, Alex has featured in works such as Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s St John Passion. Although choral music is his first love, Alex enjoys stretching his musical horizons, performing with his award-winning a cappella jazz quintet Burgundy Blue and indie rock-funk quartet Tracksuit Larry. Outside of his musical pursuits, Alex is undertaking a PhD in dark matter particle physics at the University of Melbourne.